Rob Fai: Celebrating 75 years at Canada's most historic ballpark. And a sober look at bringing MLB to Vancouver.

Our next guest is synonymous with baseball in Vancouver. The former play by playman of

the Vancouver Canadians. He also can be heard Canada wide on the chorus radio network

five to nine a.m. Saturday Sunday here on CK and W and coast to coast. It's our pleasure

to welcome Rob Faye to the program. Hello, fella. How you doing? Apologies in advance for

doing this on my Nintendo DS camera. So we'll figure that out later. It's all right.

It's a radio guy. And are you wearing one of those cool, uh, net board ads that you

designed? Yeah. That's a part of our 75th anniversary. There we go. Yeah. It's the old

scoreboard out in center field that we made into a hat that I thought was, uh, was pretty

cool. Alan Bailey gets parcel credit for it, but I did the hard work. You can tell

him I said that. But yeah, it's been flying off the shelf since only 38 bucks. So we're

not trying to gouges. We do it. Absolutely. And always good, uh, politics to credit the

boss, Alan Bailey, their general manager of Vancouver Canadians. They're home for a

two week home stand here. Two separate six game home sets and mother nearers of blind

absolutely one. So that's all good too. It's looking fantastic. But we wanted to have

you on Rob because we saw your tweet last week about major league baseball in Vancouver.

And your name came out. Oh, we had the tweet on the show. We talked about how, look, if

you're setting up a major league baseball team in Vancouver, you're first going to the

Vancouver Canadians are talking to guys like Alan Bailey and Rob Fae and Walter Cosman

because they do such a great job on operations. Needless to say, you think this is a little

pie in the sky.

Well, I've got two thoughts on this and I will not walk this tweet back at all. But

the one thing that I think that I learned in my time with Andy Dunn and Jake Kerr and

Jeff Mooney is Optics Count. And for me right now, when you've got the white caps in the

situation that they're in, this is the other major league beef in this city, uh, to have

them without a, uh, long term vision with the city. I know that they're working on it,

but are they really working on it? And to all of a sudden, have this one just kind of

come out of the proverbial left field. It just kind of left me shaking my head because,

and you guys have been in this city long enough that you can agree we've heard this many

of time, uh, with many different ownership groups. And I just thought the way that it

was rolled out. I think if I'm that group in the background, because apparently there

is a group, which is fine and dandy, but, uh, the way that it was rolled out was clunky.

It was old time. And I just think that it landed like, uh, like a, like a, a thud, which

is too bad because I think there's a lot of people in the city that would like to see

major league baseball here. But the way that it was introduced just, uh, left a lot of

us waning. I had my criticisms of the mayor as well. And why are you out there being

the face of this one? It's so early in the process. He did answer a question later in the

week about that that added some explanation and context. He said one of the criteria for

major league baseball is they asked beyond the ownership group. What is the relationship

with the city that you're proposing to have a team in? And so that's going to be a big

question that has to be answered. So we might as well try to answer it now to take that

out of the realm of things that stop us from getting a bid. That was American Sim later

last week after he dropped the idea of baseball in Vancouver. Let's, let's deal with the

separation of the two things. Um, do people, well, there's actually three things. Do people

want major league baseball? Is it viable, uh, with fan support? And then is it logistically

viable with regards to ownership and stadium? Those are three different streams. I think

people, as a concept, say they like it. And we've already got polling support on that

that has been published. You know, people say, yeah, I would like that. That sounds fun.

But then there's also the, the brass tax, the next step. Would you actually support it?

Would you, is there enough people? Is there enough people with money? Is there enough

people that like baseball and have money where there's going to be, get to critical mass

for combination season tickets or full on season tickets? And you see some of the polling

numbers. I can say, co research, co three intends that they would buy season tickets,

support for it is 72%. So let's just say, unabashed, the people say they like the concept.

Now would they support monetarily support the concept, Rob? Well, here's the question that

I have for you guys. How many people were asking for this before Ken Sim came forward and

made this announcement? Like how many people in the last three years were like, God, we

not have major league baseball in this city. So, you know what? Of course, if you throw

a shiny nickel in front of this fan base in Mario can say, Oh, yeah, I'd love to see

Aaron Judge and Vancouver hitting home runs or what have you. But nobody was asking for

this. This is just one of those things that came out. It's like, yeah, if that was here,

that'd be great to see. But I think there's a lot of people in this city that if it's

here great, and if it's not great, and that indifference is because there's a lot of

other things in this city that right now need to be the focus point. And I just, it just

was so random to me. And I understand that expansion only pops up once in a blue moon,

and that if there's a group, they maybe said to Ken Sim, like, hey, it'd be great if you

could kind of, you know, plant some seeds for us. Like I understand the process, but the

timing of said process. And again, sometimes you don't get to pick your timing, but the timing

of it, just with everything going on, you've got to buy election coming up. You've got

all these different secondary storylines to follow. It just struck me as a lot flatter than

it should have been considering. We're talking about major league baseball. What, what do you

ascribe the commissioner of baseball, Rob Manfred? He's talked lowingly about canon, including

our city Rob. Like what, what do you ascribe that to? Why do you think the commissioner has gone

out of his way to name check Vancouver in the past? Well, I mean, if you've been driving around

the last 48 hours, I mean, this is still one of the best cities on earth. There's no doubt about

it. And I think realistically Vancouver should be on the map of every major league sports team in

in North America. The NBA should be circling back on it. Baseball should be checking on it.

We should all be looking at Vancouver because it is a world class destination. But money talks.

And last time I checked, it was a 72 cent dollar. Last time I checked, we hadn't had many people

that had come forward and said, you know what, we're bringing major league baseball to Vancouver.

So I thought about it. I was like, okay, let me put the show on the other foot. What's wrong with

the American bids that would all of a sudden put Vancouver into that conversation is something

happening in Nashville is Portland no longer the city that it was 10 years ago. Like they've been

going through it down the I five. So the reality is is maybe Vancouver by default, all of a sudden

makes its way up the rungs towards being a viable option because five years ago, I thought it was

a foregone conclusion that it was going to be Nashville and Portland. So the fact that Vancouver's in

the conversation is great. But we've got to be better at just every once in a while getting that,

you know, call from the distance when they say, oh, you know, Vancouver'd be great and all of a

sudden we're like, oh, let's do this again. Let's go through the process and then just put it

on the back pages until somebody name checks us again two years later. Well, it's funny because you

mentioned Portland Rob and with the athletics moving from Oakland to Vegas, I do wonder whether

Manfred and the owners wish they could pair Seattle with a city in proximity for the sake of road

trips and all that right right right now in the American League, right? After the A's moved to

Las Vegas, Seattle's going to be all on its own up there in the Pacific Northwest corner. The

only other American League team on the West Coast is going to be the angels way down and I do

wonder whether they like the idea of having a companion city to Seattle, whereby then you can

go and do your Northwest road trip and spend a week there, play six games before moving on.

It's a little clunky and out of the way right now, Seattle as a standalone PNW market.

I think you've got to look at what is Portland not doing to continue getting that

interest because they've got a rich baseball history. It's an American market. It is the bridge

between San Francisco and on all the California teams. I mean, when I talk to Seattle fans,

Seattle don't often look north. A lot of these people look south and talk about Portland and talk

about going down the I-5. I don't know. Is Vancouver a viable city? It has to be, but it is $72

cent and Portland who has been banging the drum for so many years about Major League Baseball.

I'm a little taken aback by the shift. Yeah, and the other thing is we should, and Mike's got the

graphic. You're like the San Diego Padres are about to sell for $4 billion. Yes, so US.

Yes, US. There's many who believe that is what the expansion price tag is going to start at

because how can you say, because they're going to want to, you know, build sports leagues,

commissioners, owners, too. That's right. We want to build off every recent sale and say the

next one is only going to be more expensive. And at this point, if you're that rich, if you are,

if you're, if you're talking about that category of richness, just build like a, a burn about

stadium that combines a soccer with a, by the white caps too. I mean, what's a, what's another,

a few hundred million dollars on the ticket and make a technological state, which completely doable

where it's baseball and soccer. The NBA guys in Vegas, apparently, they want a soccer team too

incidentally, and they're going to do that with their complex is just just tack on a soccer stadium,

you know, so why not? Okay, so let me, let me throw conspiracy theory at you based on what you just

said. What if there's a buyer for the white caps who says, we'll stay here, but we want to do bigger,

we want to do more and we want to bring baseball here. We'll build that entire PNA area into a sporting

complex, we'll bring the soccer, we'll bring the baseball, we'll do it all, but we're going to need

some help from the government as well. That's the other thing that we're not talking about. That's

the problem is you're going to have all these people that are like, this sounds great, but no

private any of these going to be paying billions without support from multiple levels of government.

And I just don't know which level of government is going to be able to say, yes, David Eby,

no, no, no problem. So yeah, and of course, you make a great point, Rob, US communities have been

more willing to put public funds towards stadiums and sports teams than we have in Canada.

Now, I guess you could argue the city and the province because the province does have some

jurisdiction on the, on the Hastings site would be doing their part in terms of, okay,

here's a friendly release deal or basically here's a free land, a free land, go ahead and

develop it. We should be clear too. You certainly can't be channeling revenues, government

revenues into any of this. If you expect to get real acting, Manfred has a name check just for

people's background Vancouver in 16 in 18 in 21 and then vaguely in 2025 where he mentioned

viable cities outside of Montreal within Canada, which speaks to Vancouver. So indirectly then.

So I mean, it is, it is curious and, you know, Matt's favorite word on this program is stocking

horse, I think, you know, just, you know, the, the fact that you keep these cities in your back

pocket just because it helps with leverage with other cities down the road. Maybe he's just using

us as one of those. But, you know, why does he keep bringing it up if they don't actually want to

be here? They know that the dollar changes and they've got a, they've got a city, of course,

north of the board that where it works just fine as well. Well, I guess we just have to wait

to see what's behind door number three, which is this apparent ownership group that a,

that a lot of locals in the media are saying is a thing. So when the curtain gets pulled back and

if it's, if it's a young Jim Patterson relive in the magic, wanting one more kick at the can

and he's got the cash and shore. But I mean, we're talking billions and we're not talking one or

two. We're talking like six to eight billion dollars. After all of a sudden, that's what's going to

be. And Rob brings up a good name. It's got to be someone of a Jim Patterson level of wealth if

they're going to do this on their own. Now, there's a possibility. It's a consortium. But yeah,

it has to be pretty much a name that is recognizable at least in business circles. I mean,

I'm most of the richest people in North America, really. Yep. Yep. It's, you know, the other thing

that I, I, I, I don't want to say a hated or low fit. But when everybody says Vancouver's the

gateway to Asia, I've been in Japan twice in the last six months working on their baseball side of

things, learning more, getting ready to help with the documentary. Nobody looks at Vancouver as the

gate to baseball. Everybody and their sister looks at Los Angeles is the gateway to North America

from the Asian population. So I, I get that people want to sell Vancouver is that thoroughfare.

But trust me, if there's a baseball player on the other side of the ocean right now,

they're not looking to get their Canadian passport. They're looking to join Shohei and continue

that dynasty in a major American city where the dollars flow. I don't think that's ever going

out here. Well, I was going to say the only outlier is each arrow, but that was a unicorn for sure.

Yeah. Tell us about the documentary. Well, there's a lot of players that are coming over from Japan

and a lot of North Americans that are suddenly a lot more interested in where these players are

coming from. So I'll try to take this long story and make it as short as I can. I had an

intern last year that was helping me and the team store at Napoli Stadium who had worked

in the Japanese pro leagues before he came over for a year on his visa.

Sat down for a game behind home plate, not far from where Jim Robson used to sit and ended up

sitting beside a major league scout who got him a job with the white socks. He went back to Japan,

helped sign Miracame to the Chicago white socks, the worst team in baseball. And now he's saying,

you know what? I've never seen so many white people in the stands over here in Japanese professional

baseball because everybody doesn't want to go to the States. They want to go to see Europe or Japan.

So all of a sudden, there's this huge amount of interest in baseball from Japan,

but they have no English storytellers to tell said stories. So I've been over there kind of helping

them on that. Oh my goodness. What a story with the intern. That's fantastic. And Rob, it's great.

It's crazy. You mentioned that. I know two families who went to Japan over March break.

Both of them went to games and thought it was just an incredible experience there in Tokyo with

the crowd and everything that happens. It's a much different cultural, different kinds of

experience. Yeah. Go into a game there. Okay. You're back with the C's. We love having you back with

the, we love having you back with the C's. How 75th anniversary going because it looks like a lot of

fun. Oh, well, it started. It started kind of sad, you know, with the passing of Jim Robson,

who's such a fixture out at the ballpark. And we will, as of I think this homestand,

be wearing the Jim Robson patch on our home jerseys or sleeve, which I think is a really

subtle, but poignant gesture to a guy that really defined baseball in this city for so many years.

And aside from that, our team scuffled after the gates, such like their parent club in Toronto's

been doing, but they had a great series victory in Spokane. And now we're home for

say it with me, everybody. Two straight weeks of baseball, which is a lot of triple O burgers coming

our ways in the next two and a lot of hot dogs on these Tuesday, 75 sand hot dogs. They'll be wearing

the nat jerseys tonight, which just looks sensational. I love the script in the way it presents

particularly the front of the jersey. Last question for you because for those who don't know,

Rob was the play by play man when John Schneider was the skipper of the Vancouver Canadians.

And you officiated his wedding. Is that right? I did. Yeah. What do you make of your voice Schneider

and the way he's doing and how he's going in Toronto with the Jason? Well, he got dragged through

the mud pretty badly and in 24. So to see him bounce back and take this team to the World Series

in 25 was sweet redemption for some, but he hasn't changed. Like when they got their ticket to the

World Series when they finally got past Seattle, I was in Japan at the time going to some random

onsen. I don't even know why I was doing. And sure enough, my FaceTime goes off and it's John Schneider.

He goes, you're coming to Toronto, right? And I was just like, here's a guy who, you know,

used to manage Vancouver Canadians just punched his ticket to the World Series and still remembers

his friends, which I thought was really, really special. And I was there for Game 6 and Game 7.

I'll tell you what, I've never sat in a stadium stunned in my life until the end of Game 7 because

I replayed all of the moments where we were literally the length of a shoe away from a championship.

But, you know what, he's back there this year and he's still the same guy, which is why he's so special.

And he still looks like the manager of a single A club. He has not, he's not gotten big city.

No, he's not. He would say the least. No, no, and I love listening to him. He's just a marvelous

explainer and communicator of the game. I learned something about baseball every time I listen to

John Schneider. As a humor catcher. Rob Faye. Yeah, absolutely. Hey, buddy, thank you for the time

here. Very much appreciated. Good to catch up here on S&P. You can hear him on CKMW on the weekends.

Now it's six to nine here on Saturday and Sunday mornings, but it's five to nine nationally,

coast to coast across the chorus radio network. And if you are hitting up the net over the next

couple of weeks and you come by and you come by Rob Faye, stop him, say hello, ask where you can

get one of those beautiful scoreboard. Thank you. I'm off the bed. Bye to buy a better camera,

guys. Thanks for the time. Thank you, Rob.